France.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 385, 17 July 1889, Page 3

France.

, May 6, 1789-May 6, 1889. Majestic Franco ! Nou do the nations pale. By thy resplendence cast in dim eclipse. The thunders of thy *?roul» Apocalypse Make modern gobpcls tame as t-hviqe-lold laic! Thy word \\ent forllvand o:a the selfsame day, ,/rhe dark-sKinned slave became a fellow raan, The Jew was (oosencd from Ins social ban, "The I'roiUStant was fi'ee to preach and pray. What though the crowned and sceptred hold aloof? What though, perfidious hirelings plot thy fall ? i i Justice hath built thy adamantine wall. Thy bulwarks raised, secure as Heaven s roof. Wide a« the world is wide, thy Jubilee. Bach heart, that throbs to freedom now with thee!* '

Thk Fkkncii Revolution. ' Ib may be as well to remind the readers writes Miss Betham Edwards, to whom we are indebted for fehe-above lines, ' that the French Revolution by a stroke of the pen abolished slavery, bestowed full political, civil,. and religious rights on Jews, Protestants, and actor* ; ajuve prisoners the right of defence, and equalised taxation, up till that time borne by the working classes only! But the Legislative Ast-embly did much more. It proclaimed liberty of the press and of 'speech, the JVesponsibility of 'Ministers, established trial by jury, and plMtfed-the person 'and pioperty of every citizen; no rtiatfcr hfe creeel or birth, under the protecbionof the law.. These principles, subverted by the Napoleons and contested by the Bourbons, each in turn, are the principles upheld by the Third Republic which ex-Cieneral Boulanger and Mis Jidvs nehedd, Henri Rochefoi t, are endeavouring to overthrow.'

A very green couple froifl the counbiy attended the theatre the other night, and after they had taken their seafea^He young man began to look over the programmed ' I say, Mary,' he exclaimed with a sudden start, 'we cati't'see this play out.' ' Why, John, what's the matter?' asked the girl in disappointed tones. ' Why, , look here, this bill says three weeks elapse between the first an^l second acts, arid I've got to git home by to-morrow night to tend, to cutting that corn in the field. '